"I"m retired military, so I"ve been looking for a franchise for the wife and I to buy into and this was the most bang for my buck, basically," said Ed, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Army.

Singletary noted he has already shipped some Christmas-related items and is anticipating more business as the holiday approaches.

"My long-term goal is we plan on opening two more stores in the future," Ed said. "We"d like to put one in Chester and one in Pinckneyville and possibly more over the years."

Goin" Postal is based in Zephyrhills, Fla., and the chain has built more than 350 stores in less than three years despite competition from industry veterans such as The UPS Store and PostNet.

"We"ve been searching for a service to provide our area and we didn"t have anything like this, which is the reason why we got into it," Ed said. "If you need to go to FedEx, you need to go to Belleville or O"Fallon.

"Everything was 45 minutes from here."

Goin" Postal is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The business is closed Sunday.

Goin" Postal"s Sparta location is offering three months free (with yearly rental) of a private mailbox and 50 cents off a book of 1st class stamps (limit one coupon per customer).